Reading Room Notes

The Monument peeking through the trees, from a position approximate to the location of Agnes's flat. Photo: A. Thornton, 2016.

By Amara Thornton

Archives are full of references to locations that don’t exist anymore – landscapes and cityscapes change constantly as roads and railways are put down, old buildings are demolished and new ones put in their place. Unsurprisingly Rome is no different to any other place in that respect.

I went to Rome for the first time this summer. Although the trip was meant to be a holiday, it’s hard to abandon research interests entirely – even when supposedly ‘taking a break’. Rome was an important stop for 19th and early 20th century British tourists to the Continent, as it is today. I wanted to find the Rome that archaeologist ﻿Agnes Conway﻿ would have known: the Rome of 1912.

Early that year she travelled to Rome to live for a few months as a student at the British School. At that time the archaeologists Thomas Ashby (Director) and Eugenie Sellers Strong (Assistant Director) were running operations. This was a moment of transition in the School’s history. Founded in 1901, for the first decade of its existence it had occupied space in the Palazzo Odescalchi, a 17th century building between the Via del Corso and the Piazza S. S. Apostoli in the heart of Rome.

Agnes and a friend rented a flat that overlooked the then newly-finished Monument to Victor Emmanuel II. The flat’s location on the Via delle Pedecchia was significant too; the area was undergoing major transformation (read demolition) as a result of the Monument’s construction.

Via delle Pedecchia no longer exists, but as far as I can work out it was a stone’s throw away from the Capitoline Museums that were critical to Agnes’s interests, and five minutes walk away from the British School. When they weren’t working, Agnes and her friend spent a considerable amount of time discovering Rome’s many restaurants.

On a slightly more seasonal note, the 19th-century traveller and author Amelia Edwards also spent time in Rome. She first arrived there in the 1850s; her biographer Brenda Moon describes Edwards' fascination with the city. On her return from the Continent, Edwards solidified her reputation as a writer of short stories and novels, with gothic tales of murder and hauntings a frequent product of her pen.

Your article reflects so well what I felt when thinking about early travellers to Persepolis. Although Rome is so incredibly vast, we should find a way to capture how 19th century travellers experienced Rome when they drove through the city on horseback (thus, before 1912, but early photography is a captivating topic).

Reply

Amara

3/11/2016 05:36:20 pm

Thank you! Yes that would be a really important and interesting project. Had a quick look at inpersepolis.org, looks like a great digital experience!
-Amara